US warns of new terrorist onslaught

By Marian Wilkinson in Washington and Tom Allard in CanberraMay 15 2003

The United States fears a new wave of global terrorism following the suicide bombing massacres in Saudi Arabia - while Australia has received intelligence that fresh strikes are planned in Indonesia.

US officials have warned that al-Qaeda may be planning a series of attacks on soft targets after at least 34 people, including one Australian and seven Americans, died in Monday night's synchronised car bomb attacks on three residential compounds in Riyadh.

As a team of FBI and CIA agents flew to Saudi Arabia to help the investigation, President George Bush vowed that the US would "find the killers and they will learn the meaning of American justice".

Australian foreign affairs officials warned that further attacks in Saudi Arabia were possible, and also advised against non-essential travel to Indonesia.

The exact nature or source of the latest intelligence was not revealed but the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, said that he was "very concerned about Jemaah Islamiah" - the group allegedly behind the Bali bombings which killed 200 people including 88 Australians.

Mr Downer also said that al-Qaeda remained a threat and was likely to have been responsible for the Saudi bombings.

While Mr Downer claimed the conflict in Iraq was not linked to the attacks, Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, said that the bombings - and the new warnings for Indonesia - had proven that "the war in Iraq has not reduced the terrorist threat to Australians".

Up to 30 terrorists are believed to have taken part in the Riyadh attacks, and at least nine died in the explosions. US officials had feared at one stage that the death toll could have been as high as 90, though that number was later revised down.

No group has claimed responsibility but Saudi officials say the militants behind the bombings were part of an al-Qaeda cell whose members fought a gun battle last week with authorities before escaping.

One US official told the Los Angeles Times: "People take very seriously the idea that this may not be the only attack.

"It doesn't just have to be in the kingdom [of Saudi Arabia], it could be any number of places where al-Qaeda has a presence. When you see a well co-ordinated, well-executed attack, it makes you wonder what also might be in the pipeline. This is not just a target-of-opportunity attack that was hatched over a weekend."

US officials also said intelligence gathered in recent weeks indicated that another al-Qaeda tactic could be in play - waves of successive attacks in immediate or slightly delayed succession.

A senior member of the US Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Bob Graham, delivered a stinging criticism of the Bush Administration over the bombings which resulted in the highest number of US terrorist casualties since the September 11 attacks.

"We moved military and intelligence resources out of Afghanistan and Pakistan to get ready for the war in Iraq", said Senator Graham, who is a Democrat candidate for the next presidential election. That, he said, "allowed them to regenerate".

Australia, Britain and the US had all issued travel warnings for Saudi Arabia which were active at the time of the attacks.

The bombings have clearly shaken the Bush Administration which had been savouring a swift military victory in Iraq. The US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, made virtually no comment on the attacks, which took place at 11.30pm on Monday, the night before the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, arrived in Riyadh to discuss the Middle East peace plan.

Touring one of the devastated sites, Mr Powell described the attacks as "well planned" with all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda.

US consular officials were working around the clock to identify the dead and injured as Mr Powell met the Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud, and Crown Prince Abdullah for talks.

The Saudi Government says the death toll of 34 includes one Australian, seven Americans, seven Saudis, two Jordanians, two Filipinos, one Swiss, and the nine bombers.